Manufacturing and workshops

The economics that make this obvious

Every workshop has a list of things that would make a job easier: a fixture so a part stops moving, a guide so a hole goes in the right place every time, a gauge so nobody has to measure, a tray so components stop getting mixed up. Almost none of them get made, because each one is a one-off that would have to be machined or fabricated, and none is individually worth the interruption.

Printing changes the arithmetic. When a fixture costs hours rather than a week and there is no tooling to commit to, the list stops being a list and starts getting done. The saving is not the part — it is the operation the part improves, repeated every day for a year.

It also makes being wrong cheap. Version one of a fixture teaches you something about the operation that nobody knew when it was designed, and version two takes an afternoon.

What gets made

• Workholding and soft jaws shaped to an awkward part, including flexible TPU faces where a finished surface must not be marked.
• Drill guides and location jigs so a repeated operation stops depending on care and attention.
• Assembly fixtures and nests that hold components in position while they are joined.
• Go / no-go gauges and templates for quick checks that do not need an instrument.
• Trays, holders and organisers for kitting, sequencing and stopping mix-ups.
• Guards, covers and dust shrouds for machines whose originals broke and were never replaced.
• Machine spares that are no longer available — see obsolete machine parts.

The full detail on the first several is on the jigs and fixtures page.

What makes a good enquiry

Describe the operation, not the part you have in mind. "We need a bracket" produces a bracket; "the operator has to hold this while drilling two holes and it keeps rotating" produces a fixture that actually solves it, and often a simpler one than the bracket would have been.

A photograph of the workstation is worth a great deal — it shows the clamping, the clearances and the working position that a description never quite captures. And say what the operation runs on, because a fixture for a bench drill and a fixture for a mill are different objects.

The honest limits

Not for cutting forces. A printed fixture locates and holds; it does not resist the loads of a milling cutter taking a real cut. Locating a part is well within scope. Restraining it against a machining load is not, and a printed fixture that fails on a machine is a dangerous thing rather than merely a wasted one.

Not near heat. Anything close to welding, hot parts, ovens or heating elements is outside what these materials do.

Not safety-rated. Machine guards that form part of a risk assessment, and anything a compliance obligation attaches to, should be made another way. Convenience covers and dust shrouds are fine; a guard someone is relying on is not.

Wear is expected and usually fine. A fixture in daily production will wear. Because the model is kept, a replacement is a print — which for a consumable production aid is often better than a machined one that cannot be replaced quickly when the operation changes.

Who this suits

Small and medium manufacturers, fabricators, workshops and production teams — anyone with repeated operations and a list of improvements nobody has had time to make. This is naturally recurring work, and it is the kind this workshop is set up for: a settled design, printed again when it wears, revised when the operation changes.

Frequently asked questions

Can a printed fixture hold a part during machining?

It can locate a part reliably. It should not be the thing resisting cutting forces — that is outside what a printed fixture is for, and the failure mode on a machine is not a minor one. Where a job is in that territory you will be told plainly.

We need six variants of the same fixture. Is that a problem?

It is the opposite of a problem. Variants are nearly free when there is no tooling — a change to the model and another print. This is one of the clearest advantages printing has over any other process for production aids.

What information do you need to quote a jig?

Describe the operation and what goes wrong with it now, send a photo of the workstation, and say what machine or bench it runs on. Those three together are usually enough for a same-day price.

How long does a fixture last in daily production?

It depends entirely on the duty. The practical answer is that it does not need to last forever, because the model is kept and a replacement is a print. Treat a production aid as consumable and the economics work well.

Can you improve a fixture we already have?

Yes. Send the existing one — it is faster to measure and modify something that already half-works than to start from a description of it. That is a reverse engineering job and it is routine.